A method for calibrating an engine control system includes identifying engine calibration sub-problems for an engine calibration; seeding an initial generation for one of the engine calibration sub-problems with known/good individuals; optimizing free parameters in the one of the engine calibration sub-problem over a parameter/coefficient scheduling space using a genetic algorithm; using penalty functions; identifying a next one of the engine calibration sub-problems containing a prior one of the engine calibration sub-problems; seeding an initial population of the next one of the engine calibration sub-problems with know/good individuals; repeating until the engine calibration containing the engine calibration sub-problems is solved; and operating an engine control system of a vehicle using the engine calibration.